T4 Phase Four

The final Phase Four of the T4 initiative is nearing its completion. Preliminary results from the student survey are being reviewed. Final campus visits and discussions are being completed. Consultations are underway to align the recommendations from the task force with the priorities of the Chief Academic Officers, the ITS strategic plan and with campus priorities. The Phase 4 Report is being drafted. The final P3 Report as well as the results of the faculty survey are posted on the right.

Over the course of the FY13 academic year, T4 has had two priority goals. The first is to complete a System wide student survey paralleling last year's faculty survey. The second is to collaborate with campuses to make use of the data generated by these surveys.

T4 is committed to transparency and data sharing with campuses. You can become informed about the Phase 4 findings and drafting efforts by contacting the project manager (kelliott@maine.edu) or other members of the Task Force. You can access the T4 Phase Three report to Chancellor Page (right). That report includes results of the Faculty Survey as well as data summaries for each campus.

Summer 2012

T4 has been funded to complete the fourth phase of its work. Over the summer we are completing the design of the student survey and planning our fall visits to campuses. We're looking forward to discussing with campus leaders the results of this past year's faculty survey and to securing support for this year's survey work. As well, T4 has successfully submitted a proposal to the Regional Sloan-C Conference. We expect to be presenting on the next phase of the Systems study of eLearning in October.

As always your inquiries or comments on the work so far is most welcome and helpful to the project.  

Winding Up Phase Three

Approaching the end of the fiscal year, T4 is analyzing the results of this year's faculty focus groups and survey. A Phase Three Report is under development and will be submitted to the Chancellor in the first part of July.

T4 appreciates the support for the Spring Summit provided by each of the seven campuses, for the efforts made by Provosts and Student Affairs Officers supporting the spring focus group work, and for the hosting of the Summit itself by Vice Chancellor Breece, Chancellor Page and former Chancellor Pattenaude. 

UMS eLearning Summit 2012

On April 3rd the summit will be held from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM. Participants will include delegations from each of the seven UMS campuses. Participants are able to participate either by traveling to the Wells Conference Center in Orono on the U Maine Campus or by joining the event from polycom locations on each campus. Individuals wanting to participate using video streaming and email or twitter will also be welcome.

For details about how to participate in the summit, the agenda, and the logistics, click on the appropriate hyperlink. For the final version of all the Summit Handouts, use this hyperlink.

To access the Campus eLearning Landscapes or the preliminary survey report from the Center for Research and Evaluation or comments from campus speakers, click on these hyperlinks.

Toward a Post Digital Era?

The digital world has become an iconic focus in the 21st century. To conceptualize a process through which higher education adapts to this emergence, requires a developmental perspective. The study and intentional facilitation of eTeaching and eLearning within the U Maine System context, is daunting.

The Information Age is at least 40 years in the making. In the past 15 years, defining 'digital literacy' and 'digital citizenship' have been a challenge (exciting and threatening) for educators given that every kind of educational enterprise is undergoing 'transformation' at a rate that seems historic and profound.

That said, we must either assume that we might but 'cope' with relentless change; or, we can attempt to identify a new institutional paradigm towards which we are 'shifting' (Kunh, T., 1962 - http://www.taketheleap.com/define.html).This paradigm or 'vision' is our light in the tunnel.

T4 is but one group studying these changes. Now in our third year, the group has visited all seven campuses seeking assistance in articulating 'landscapes' that describe the state of eLearning specific to each campus culture in the U Maine System. We've been reviewing literature and online resources to better educate ourselves about emerging models of eLearning institutions beyond the boundaries of our System. Many of the artifacts from this study are available at the open enrollment T4 website situated in Blackboard.

Mindful of the need to deliver to the community real and useful artifacts, over this year and next, we aspire to engage campus faculties in improving local planning based upon the needs of the campuses; to complete the two types surveys and focus groups. We will feed this information back to faculty, students and institutional planners at the campus level.

Half way through our inquiry, we are seeing patterns of development that suggest a predictable transformational process and elements of continuity that suggest a sustainable and stable paradigm for the era ahead.We welcome (and need) many voices informing this study. We have no illusions that we are ourselves more than investigators. T4 itself is an entity akin perhaps to the rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) currently exploring the planet Mars.

UMS eLearning at the end of 2011

T4 (the Teaching Through Technology Task Force) is the host of this blog, the developer of the faculty and student surveys and the designer of the Spring '12 Summit sponsored by VCAA James Breece. T4 was established by Chancellor Pattenaude in 2010 as a group of faculty, administrators, students and IT professionals from across the System studying the current eLearning campus landscapes and the impact teaching and learning mediated by digital technologies. We are conducting these studies in collaboration with the Center for Research and Evaluation located in Orono.

Since 2010 it has published two reports on the state of eLearning within UMS. In 2011 it has designed and is conducting a System wide faculty survey together with campus faculty focus groups on all seven campuses. In Fall of 2012 it will conduct a parallel student survey. The results of these surveys will be shared at a System wide eLearning Summit on April of 2012. 

In order to better align the many campus and System level eLearning development groups, T4 is partnering with two parallel System wide development groups to co-host the April Summit. The Distance Learning Steering Committee (see links) is the second group. UMS Information Technology Services is the third.  

In thinking about the alignment of these three groups it is helpful to know the following. T4 is a time limited 'think tank' effort, designed to study the state of eLearning in UMS, provide useful data on the impact of eLearning upon faculty and students and to offer recommendations to better align System assets. The aspiration of T4 is to assist the Chancellor in moving the System towards the development of a System wide eLearning development plan.

DLSC, established in 2011, has developed recommendations for the Board of Trustees about how best to strengthen the relationship between centralized and campus based distance learning support services. It has focused largely upon issues related to developing an array of centralized services primarily housed in University College. It has also submitted recommendations for form an eLearning governance structure and identifying optimal funding methods for University College. 

ITS is the group focused primarily upon acquiring, deploying and supporting the use of large scale computer technologies, LMS (learning management system) and MIS (management information system) assets. Within ITS, a number of smaller groups (e.g. an LMS Committee and a Blackboard Core Group) are evaluating the use of these assets.

 These three System level entities are working together to support campus efforts who in turn support faculty and students making the transition into fully integrated eLearning and eTeaching environments.

T4 meetings and contacts. The eLearning summit is planned for April 3 and the next full T4 meeting is scheduled for May 18th. If you have any questions or suggestions about T4, either visit the T4 website in Blackboard or contact Ken Elliott (kelliott@maine.edu) the project manager.